Saturday, April 16, 2016

2016 Victorian Police and Emergency Services Games

Today was the track and field day for the Victorian Police and Emergency Services Games. I had entered 3 events for the day, namely the 100m, 200m and 400m sprints. This took place in Croydon, in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, over 2 hours drive away, which meant an early start on the road.

On arrival, I signed in and noticed that although the field was small, I did have some competition in my events, which was good. It’s not as much fun winning a “one horse race”.

First up was the 100 metres. Conditions were excellent, with hardly any wind. I ran reasonably well, coming 4th overall in my heat and second in my age group, with a time of 13.52. Acceleration seemed to be where I lost time, once up to top speed, I was holding my position, if not gaining slightly.

An hour and a half later was the 200m. After a quick warmup, I was ready to race. The 200m has been my best event over the summer. This time, I had a coordination hiccup at the start, before getting underway. Rounded the bend in second place, and now at top speed, I started gaining on the leader. Finished second in my heat, and won the gold in my age group.

Lunch followed the 200m (after watching the final stages of the high jump), then medal presentations for the morning events.

After lunch, conditions deteriorated. A stiff southerly wind sprang up, creating a headwind down the back straight. These were the conditions for the 400m, my last event, which made race tactics a bit harder. Again, the coordination issue crept in, but the rest of the race was solid. The headwind in the back straight made the race significantly slower than I had hoped, sapping speed built up in the start. However, I pushed through and maintained pace for the rest of the race. Finished second in my heat, but another gold medal, when broken down into age groups, with a time of around 66 seconds, and a massive lead over the others in my age group.

Ended up finishing the day as an official, helping counting laps for the 5000m event, which was the last of the day. This made for an interesting end to the day. All that was left were the medal presentations, before saying goodbye.

A good day all round, with a great chance to look at my race performance in some detail. It seems the acceleration phase is now my weak link. My top speed has improved considerably over the past summer. From here, I’m keen to look at the more technical aspects of my race, to improve that acceleration.

Anyway, my track season has ended, and it’s back to cross country next week.